The present invention relates in general to methods of assembling components in a diode-laser module. The invention relates in particular to a diode-laser or semiconductor-laser module including a component bonded to a substrate via a bonding medium, and a heating-element for heating the bonding medium, and to a method for bonding the component to the substrate, whereby the bonding medium is heated by the heating element during bonding of the component.
A module and bonding method of this type are disclosed in European patent publication EP 0 196 875. According to this prior-art process, an optical component in the form of an optical fiber is soldered onto a soldering site on a substrate. The solder is melted by a heating-element previously bonded to the substrate. The heating element is in the form of a chip resistor. A disadvantage of this prior art process is that the temperature to which the soldering site is heated by the chip resistor is difficult to control and can vary considerably over the surface of the chip resistor. Further, in order to reliably solder on a mass production scale by this prior-art method, the soldering site must be heated to a temperature well above the melting point of the solder. Because of this, the component to be soldered may be damaged, and the soldering site can become highly stressed after cooling, which can lead to misalignment or detachment of the component.